Get Ready For The' War Of The Roses' Beta

You'll need to prepare to die in more ways than one this August, if Paradox/Fatshark third-person medieval combat game War of the Roses enters its beta phase on time and you happen to be one of the lucky ones with a beta invite (like me.)

IGN says the game may be "too hardcore for its own good" thanks to its elaborate combat system. Slow and inaccurate cross-bows and unwieldy blades make for a steep learning curve, apparently. If the game is anything at all like Mount & Blade, I can see where they're coming from.

"War of the Roses won’t be released until later this year," IGN's Anthony Gallegos writes, "but I’m not sure extra development time is what’s required. Rather, the design choices made for War of the Roses seem to make it inherently unfriendly to less-skilled or new players. But maybe, just maybe, that’s the point. Crossbows weren’t easy to wind for our 15th century counter-parts, nor were swords easy for a person to wield in battle. War of the Roses attempts to make a game that somewhat accurately portrays the challenge and skill of medieval combat…I’m just afraid that “fun” might have been sacrificed a bit too much for the sake of history."

I haven't played War of the Roses yet, and it may indeed turn out that Gallegos is right and the combat is too accurate for its own good, but I'm hoping it's more akin to Mount & Blade in that, after that steep learning curve is hurdled, the game itself becomes all the more rewarding for its depth and complexity.

Paradox doesn't need to appeal to the masses with a title like this; all it needs to do is appeal to that niche market that will geek out over a new medieval combat game. And then let the modding community out of the bag.

But even with out the modding community, the game sounds impressively deep. The great thing about a company like Paradox is that they can make titles that are neither AAA behemoths or tiny indie productions. That middle-ground is rarely tread in the gaming industry these days, but it allows gamers to find games that appeal directly to their specific niche that are deeper and more rewarding than short indie titles.

"Fatshark’s vision for third-person medieval brawling marries the pre-game loadout customization of Modern Warfare and Battlefield with the deep statistical rabbit hole Paradox strategy game," writes PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon. "I don’t just choose a sword as my secondary weapon — I decide what type of metal that sword was forged from, what kind of pommel it has, and what kind of fighting style my avatar will adopt when he unsheathes his blade."

Fenlon describes the battles as chaotic and goofy; intense bloodbaths at once addicting and awkward. "Every encounter in War of the Roses feels intense, profoundly silly, or (usually) both. Team deathmatch has been done a million and one times before, but even within an old framework, War of the Roses’ swordfights and jousting sessions are refreshing."